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Beating Dallas would boost low-key Eli's stature
Johnette Howard
November 9, 2007
Giants quarterback Eli Manning started out answering the inquiries willingly. Then he was merely accommodating. Soon he was uncomfortably shifting his weight from side to side.
Maybe Manning expected the questions coming at him to be more about the Cowboys or the NFC East title, which could be decided Sunday when Dallas visits Giants Stadium. Instead, he was being asked about Tony Romo's season and Tony Romo's charisma and Tony Romo's growing reputation for celebrity girlfriends. Finally, Manning interrupted.
"You all have a lot of questions about Tony Romo," Manning said with a cryptic smile.
Johnette Howard Johnette HowardBio | Recent columns
It was hard to tell if Manning was annoyed or amused or just too characteristically absorbed with the nuts and bolts of winning Sunday's game to be derailed into talking about anything else. If Manning were a thermostat, "cryptic" would be his natural set point.
Romo, a sudden sensation whom the Cowboys signed as an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois, was philosophical and funny and loose as could be on his conference call with New York beat writers earlier in the day, candidly admitting when he got his first big signing bonus last year that the first thought that went barreling through his mind was "Whoo, I'm rich!" But Manning spooned out the sort of pat answers nobody bothered much to write down when he spoke by his locker later.
Asked if the Dallas reporters had asked for him to be the only Giant they'd get on their conference call, Manning said, "Nope."
It's amazing how quickly Romo's lengthening eclipse of Manning has happened - not just the fluff off the field, but the substance Romo has shown on the field, too.
Nobody is giving up on Manning, of course. Not even close. But four years into his NFL career, people are still drumming their fingers on the table and waiting, always waiting, for Eli to really bust loose, go nuts, terrorize opponents for a month or two and make the next big progression, the first huge breakthrough in his career.
Outplaying Romo on Sunday, grabbing this game with both hands and lifting the 6-2 Giants into a first-place tie with Dallas, certainly would qualify. Winning a couple of playoff games in a row would come next.
The Giants need Manning to be a difference in games such as this. That's why they traded a ransom to get him after San Diego drafted him No. 1 overall in 2004.
Romo has started only 19 NFL games since that October Monday Night game he entered last year in the second half against the Giants in place of Drew Bledsoe. But that's all Romo has needed to become a star. A win Sunday would give Dallas a two-game lead in the NFC East and a sweep of the Giants with seven games to go. Right now Romo is no worse than the second-best quarterback in the NFC after his hero, Brett Favre, while Manning hovers in this netherworld of good but not great.
With Manning, there always still seems to be a withholding of judgment going on. He hasn't done anything wrong, per se. He's improved every season. For the third straight year Manning has presided over a 6-2 start, too. But knowing how the Giants' previous two seasons crashed, people don't trust this year's record. Not yet, anyway. And Sunday figures to be the sort of back-and-forth game that Romo or Manning could decide with a play or two.
Manning already has had some benchmark games in his four-year career - his first trip back to rancorous San Diego early in his second season proved he has guts; the late comebacks he's orchestrated showed he can be clutch; the Manning Bowl that his Super Bowl-bound brother Peyton barely won last season for Indy underlined his competitiveness.
But Romo already has one Pro Bowl berth versus none for Eli. Manning knows he will always lose charisma comparisons to Romo, who smiles and scrambles his way throughout games, boyishly wears a baseball cap backward on the sideline and plays with more outward joy than any Dallas quarterback since Dandy Don Meredith. Fine.
But it was still a little buzz-killing Wednesday to hear Manning use the "m" word to describe himself - as in "I just try to manage the game" - while Romo spoke of "flinging it" and seeing if the Giants are good enough to stop him. At some point, a No. 1 overall pick should produce big-time magic, too.
Manning swears he doesn't pay attention to his rank anywhere, not on the gossip pages ("I think you all are reading those" ) or against the other quarterback on the field.
"I don't know what his stats are, I don't know what my stats are," Manning said of Romo.
But everyone else is keeping score. So far the ledger says this: Manning needs Sunday's game more than Romo does. Time for Eli to take his next Giant step.
The numbers game
Not that Eli Manning keeps track of such things, but here's a comparison of his stats and Tony Romo's:
OVERALL
Comp. Att. Pct. Yards TDs Int. Sacks Rating
Manning 145 249 58.2 1,584 13 9 8 79.5
Romo 170 264 64.4 2,308 19 10 11 100.4
IN THE RED ZONE
Comp. Att. Pct. Yds TDs Int. Sacks Rating
Manning 23 36 63.9 135 8 1 0 99.0
Romo 18 37 48.6 126 10 1 3 85.1
http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/giants/ny-sphow095453032nov09,0,218567.column
Johnette Howard
November 9, 2007
Giants quarterback Eli Manning started out answering the inquiries willingly. Then he was merely accommodating. Soon he was uncomfortably shifting his weight from side to side.
Maybe Manning expected the questions coming at him to be more about the Cowboys or the NFC East title, which could be decided Sunday when Dallas visits Giants Stadium. Instead, he was being asked about Tony Romo's season and Tony Romo's charisma and Tony Romo's growing reputation for celebrity girlfriends. Finally, Manning interrupted.
"You all have a lot of questions about Tony Romo," Manning said with a cryptic smile.
Johnette Howard Johnette HowardBio | Recent columns
It was hard to tell if Manning was annoyed or amused or just too characteristically absorbed with the nuts and bolts of winning Sunday's game to be derailed into talking about anything else. If Manning were a thermostat, "cryptic" would be his natural set point.
Romo, a sudden sensation whom the Cowboys signed as an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois, was philosophical and funny and loose as could be on his conference call with New York beat writers earlier in the day, candidly admitting when he got his first big signing bonus last year that the first thought that went barreling through his mind was "Whoo, I'm rich!" But Manning spooned out the sort of pat answers nobody bothered much to write down when he spoke by his locker later.
Asked if the Dallas reporters had asked for him to be the only Giant they'd get on their conference call, Manning said, "Nope."
It's amazing how quickly Romo's lengthening eclipse of Manning has happened - not just the fluff off the field, but the substance Romo has shown on the field, too.
Nobody is giving up on Manning, of course. Not even close. But four years into his NFL career, people are still drumming their fingers on the table and waiting, always waiting, for Eli to really bust loose, go nuts, terrorize opponents for a month or two and make the next big progression, the first huge breakthrough in his career.
Outplaying Romo on Sunday, grabbing this game with both hands and lifting the 6-2 Giants into a first-place tie with Dallas, certainly would qualify. Winning a couple of playoff games in a row would come next.
The Giants need Manning to be a difference in games such as this. That's why they traded a ransom to get him after San Diego drafted him No. 1 overall in 2004.
Romo has started only 19 NFL games since that October Monday Night game he entered last year in the second half against the Giants in place of Drew Bledsoe. But that's all Romo has needed to become a star. A win Sunday would give Dallas a two-game lead in the NFC East and a sweep of the Giants with seven games to go. Right now Romo is no worse than the second-best quarterback in the NFC after his hero, Brett Favre, while Manning hovers in this netherworld of good but not great.
With Manning, there always still seems to be a withholding of judgment going on. He hasn't done anything wrong, per se. He's improved every season. For the third straight year Manning has presided over a 6-2 start, too. But knowing how the Giants' previous two seasons crashed, people don't trust this year's record. Not yet, anyway. And Sunday figures to be the sort of back-and-forth game that Romo or Manning could decide with a play or two.
Manning already has had some benchmark games in his four-year career - his first trip back to rancorous San Diego early in his second season proved he has guts; the late comebacks he's orchestrated showed he can be clutch; the Manning Bowl that his Super Bowl-bound brother Peyton barely won last season for Indy underlined his competitiveness.
But Romo already has one Pro Bowl berth versus none for Eli. Manning knows he will always lose charisma comparisons to Romo, who smiles and scrambles his way throughout games, boyishly wears a baseball cap backward on the sideline and plays with more outward joy than any Dallas quarterback since Dandy Don Meredith. Fine.
But it was still a little buzz-killing Wednesday to hear Manning use the "m" word to describe himself - as in "I just try to manage the game" - while Romo spoke of "flinging it" and seeing if the Giants are good enough to stop him. At some point, a No. 1 overall pick should produce big-time magic, too.
Manning swears he doesn't pay attention to his rank anywhere, not on the gossip pages ("I think you all are reading those" ) or against the other quarterback on the field.
"I don't know what his stats are, I don't know what my stats are," Manning said of Romo.
But everyone else is keeping score. So far the ledger says this: Manning needs Sunday's game more than Romo does. Time for Eli to take his next Giant step.
The numbers game
Not that Eli Manning keeps track of such things, but here's a comparison of his stats and Tony Romo's:
OVERALL
Comp. Att. Pct. Yards TDs Int. Sacks Rating
Manning 145 249 58.2 1,584 13 9 8 79.5
Romo 170 264 64.4 2,308 19 10 11 100.4
IN THE RED ZONE
Comp. Att. Pct. Yds TDs Int. Sacks Rating
Manning 23 36 63.9 135 8 1 0 99.0
Romo 18 37 48.6 126 10 1 3 85.1
http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/giants/ny-sphow095453032nov09,0,218567.column